FAQ: Does outsourcing mean job losses

This premise is totally baseless! Yes, people have been let go in the past when factories have been moved to China or cars have been bought from Japan. But this is not very different from the mail boy being replaced by the email that we all use. Even USPS is being replaced by emails and libraries are being replaced by ebooks. But the key thing you will notice in all these examples is the fact that technology brings about disruptive changes. The internet has brought the change that has made the world a much smaller place where the entire labor pool of the world can work in any place at anytime.

In every customer we have engaged with in Vantage Agora we have recommended our customers not to replace a single person. Instead VA consulting has recommended that these people be moved around effectively in the organization to help fuel the top-line of the organization. Vantage Agora resources have helped companies take over the back-office tasks that can be done from a remote location. This has led to people doing value added activities here in the United States.

If you look at it the other way, without Vantage Agora most of our client organization would have lost these people either because of diminishing top-line or because of these people were not growing in their jobs were lost to the competition. We have seen people with 25 to 30 years of operational experience be let go without Vantage Agora in several of companies in our target market. This has nothing to do with outsourcing.

Smart management in these tough times calls for thinking beyond the traditional mold and leverage the in-house experience to grow sales than have them do lower value add activity without any prospect of growth.